


Runaway

by formula1trash



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: F/M, Formula 1, Formula One, M/M, mission unlocked
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-09-02 21:38:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8684248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/formula1trash/pseuds/formula1trash
Summary: Max had only just become 16 when he receives a text message from a blocked number on his birthday party. "First mission unlocked. Complete within 24 hours or consequences will be seen shortly."





	1. Chapter 1

Max had only just become 16 when he receives a text message from a blocked number on his birthday party. "First mission unlocked. You have 24 hours to complete, or consequences will be seen shortly. Your mission is: ‘go to school’.”. At first, he didn't think too much of it. He ignored the text and continued to celebrate his birthday with his friends. He smiled as everyone sang him ‘Happy Birthday’ and as they finished, he blew out the candles before slicing the cake.

“Everyone wants cake right?” He asked, with a cheeky smile on his face.

“Absolutely.” Daniel chuckled.

Daniel had been Max’s best friend ever since he transferred from Australia to his elementary school. Max didn’t have many friends, so Daniel being newly made him really excited, hoping that he could make a good first impression as a start of their friendship. Apparently, it had worked, because Daniel didn’t really make any other friends beside Max. When they went to high school together, they still weren’t known as the popular guys, but they sure had more friends than they did in elementary school.

People they had always looked up to were the popular kids. Max had always tried to impress Carlos, but he ended up becoming one of his victims. That was a big downside to the popular kids, they bullied to make themselves look better. Daniel had always felt sorry for Max, but he was too afraid to act up. After all, he didn’t want to become one of the victims himself.

Max finished slicing the cake and handed it out to everyone.

“Max, there’s someone at the door for you.” His younger sister Victoria said, standing in the doorway from the hallway to the living room.

“Oh.” He said, and got up to see who it was. His sister went back upstairs, and when he opened the door fully, he saw who it was. The guy he had been looking up to for years. It was Carlos.

“Hey,” Carlos said, as Max’s cheeks instantly flushed.

“Carlos.” He said. “Can I help you?” He asked nervously, afraid that Carlos was going to pull something on him.

“Hey Max, um, is this a bad time?” He asked, sounding very casual, which made Max feel even more suspicious.

“Depends, it’s my birthday so..” He swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump he felt in his throat.

“Oh, sorry, eh, happy birthday, see you later.” He said, quickly turned around and walked away.

Max raised his eyebrow, really wondering why Carlos showed up at his house. He realized he wouldn’t be coming back, so he closed the door and went back to his friends to eat cake.

“Who was that?” Nico asked.

“Uhh, I don’t know, wrong house.” Max shrugged, trying to get his mind onto something else. Nico nodded in response.

“Do you have any alcohol?” Kimi asked.

“No underage drinking in my house!” Max’s mom, Sophie, called from the kitchen, overhearing their conversation, which made everyone but Kimi laugh.

“Come on mom, we’re all 16! If we were still back in Holland with dad I would have been able to drink my first beer!” Max said disappointedly.

“Not a chance Max.” She replied.

“Damn.” He mumbled.

“Bwoah, this ain’t no fun,” Kimi complained.

“Yeah, we still have school tomorrow.” Stoffel sighed. “No beer this time Kimi.”

  
The next afternoon, Max woke up with a terrible headache. As soon as he opened his eyes, the light that shone through his bedroom window blinded him temporarily. “Jesus Christ.” He groaned. His buzzing phone caught his attention after he had woken up a bit more. It was another text message from the same blocked number.

“Failed to complete the first mission. Consequences will be seen shortly.”

He looked at his alarm, he was way too late for school. It was nearly 2 pm. He got up after a few minutes, and went downstairs, only to find his mom ready to yell at him.

“Max, I told you no drinking! What the hell is wrong with you?” She said in frustration, clearing a bunch of empty beer bottles off the table. It confused him, he didn’t remember drinking anything but a few bottles of coke.

“I didn’t-“ He mumbled, but his mom interrupted him before he could finish.

“Oh, you’re claiming you didn’t drink? Last time I checked on you this morning you smelled like beer, and you slept through your alarm at least 5 times. I don’t want you pulling this on me again, understood?” She snapped.

“Yes, mom.” He simply replied, not feeling like going into discussion with her. He grabbed a piece of cake from the fridge for breakfast and went back upstairs to his bedroom. He sat down on his king sized bed, not bothering to fix the crumpled sheets. He put the plate with cake on his bedside table and noticed another text. He held his breath as he looked at the slightly dimmed screen. He was afraid it was going to be another one of those texts, but it wasn’t.

Stoffel the Turtle: “Hey, missing you at school today. Where you at?”

Max sighed in relief as he opened the message and sent him a reply.

The Maxinator: “Woke up completely hungover and slept through my alarm at least 5 times. Aren’t you guys hungover as hell?”

He didn’t have to wait long until Stoffel was typing again.

Stoffel the Turtle: “Dude, what did you drink last night? Not even Kimi had one drop, well, at least if he wasn’t hiding a flask somewhere.”

Stoffel’s reply made Max chuckle, he always knew how to cheer him up, even though their contact had been better in the past.

When Stoffel had first met Max at the local karting track when they were younger, there was quite some competition between them. Max had moved up from a lower league halfway through the season because his coach thought that it would suit him better. Stoffel had been working hard since he was very little, to reach the top, and he didn’t like it that Max could get the promotions so easily, even though he did have a lot of talent, and he knew Max worked really hard to get there as well. There was a lot of tension between them the first few months, but after a while, they really started to get along. Stoffel gave Max some tips for his driving, and Max gave Stoffel some tips as well. They noticed that they were very alike, which caused them both to hang out with each other more and more. Eventually, they developed a good friendship.

One moment, there was a critical decision, that was guaranteed to bring more tension back into their friendship. There was a big karting competition, for which they both qualified, and some of the big names were going to be there to look for recruits for one of the next seasons. Max and Stoffel were both very nervous, so nervous, that they drove each other off the track. Their coaches weren’t very impressed, and neither were the big names that watched them until the end. They both blamed each other for the accident, and it took them a long while until they spoke to each other again.

  
The Maxinator: “I have no idea what happened, I can’t recall drinking one little bit, and when I came down this morning the table was filled with empty bottles of beer and some half empty wine bottles as well”

His phone buzzed once more, he thought it was another reply from Stoffel, but it wasn’t. This time it was from the same blocked number.

“It’s time for your second mission, and you better not fuck it up this time.”


	2. Chapter 2

“It’s time for your second mission, and you better not fuck it up this time.”

Max stared at his phone screen anxiously, waiting for the anonymous user to send him the next text message. He wondered if it was actually a living person. At the same time, it could be a virus or something like that. Who knew?

“Your second mission: Meet up with your friend Stoffel at the park. Remember, don’t fuck it up, or consequences will be seen shortly. You have 10 minutes to complete this mission.”

“Shit,” Max mumbled. He quickly shoved the leftover cake into his mouth, and put on a pair of pants, as the clocked kept ticking. To save time, he didn’t tell his mom that he was leaving. She wouldn’t have agreed anyways, as he was basically grounded after what she found last night. He moved his desk chair in front of his bedroom door so she wouldn’t be able to get in, and he finally snuck out of the window. He climbed down the drainpipe and ran through a bush to get out of his yard as quickly as possible, so the chance of his mom spotting him was minimal.

He sprinted to the park as fast as he could, with only three minutes left, and the park still a couple of meters away. Plus, he had to find Stoffel as well, how could he know what he was up to? At least, if he was at the park. When he made it to the center of the park, with Stoff nowhere to be seen, he decided to call him. Hopefully, he would pick up, since Max was unsure what the person behind the text messages was capable of doing.

“Hey Maxo, what's up?” Stoff breathed through the other side of the phone.

“Hey, where you at?” He replied, trying to sound as smooth as possible.

“‘M at the park, just went for a run. Why?” He breathed out.

“What a coincidence. Meet me in the center, but be quick.” He tried to rush the conversation.

“Wait, I see you,” Stoffel said, before hanging up.

  
“Why the rush?” He finally caught his breath.

“I- eh, yeah I don’t really know.” Max tried to avoid having to explain everything, but he was a very bad liar. The good thing was, that Stoffel pretty much believed everything he said. He was lucky this time.

“Are you still texting that Rosanne girl?” Stoffel asked, changing the topic so Max didn’t have to.

“No, not really, things got kind of awkward after she called me Gerald in bed. She just doesn’t want to explain. Anyways, you seeing anyone yet?” He sighed, and ran his hand through his hair, pulling out a small twig that got stuck in it while he ran through the bushes.

“I asked because I wanted to know if she was available. She’s pretty hot you know.” Stoffel smirked. “What happened to you, though? You look like a tree cosplay. New thing?” He teased.

“Yeah yeah, long story.” Max grinned.

  
“You fucked someone in the bushes?” He asked, very seriously.

“Oh hell no!” Max laughed. “You know I’m not like that, you idiot.”

“Oh, well, you could have, who knows?” Stoffel chuckled.

  
Max’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to see who it was. The blocked number again.

“Who is it?” Stoffel asked. “I swear to god if it’s that Rosanne girl-“

“No no, it’s just my mom,” Max said, a frown appearing on his face.

“Is everything alright?” Stoffel asked, rather worried.

“Yeah yeah, all good.” He mumbled and slid his phone back into his pocket.

  
“So what about that hangover you’ve got going?”

“I really don’t know, I can’t remember anything from last night,” Max replied.

“You weren’t drunk at all. Did you secretly go to an after party where we weren’t invited to?” Stoffel joked.

“Hahaha, yeah, I guess so.” Max smiled.

“Well well well, look who we’ve got there.” Stoffel’s eyes were following a person in the distance, eating something that looked like takeout.

“What’s he doing here?” Max’s cheeks instantly flushed.

“You’re still afraid of him?” Stoffels' eyes moved to Max, whose heartbeat instantly raised when he saw him. He could remember him showing up to his house the night before, but leaving before Max could say anything. His thoughts were still with him, for a big amount of the time. What could it possibly be that Carlos approached Max for no reason? He didn’t ask anything, he just said hi, and left. Max felt nauseous every time he forced himself to think about it. ‘God damn it, Carlos. Fuck you, and your pretty hair.’ He had thought to himself.

All of a sudden, Max snapped out of his thoughts. He felt a hand resting on his shoulder. He turned around to see who it was. And god damn, he wished it was someone else.

“Vic? What are you doing here?” He asked, hoping she wouldn’t tell their mom about it. If she knew he had snuck out, he would have been beheaded instantly.

“I could ask you the same thing.” She said. She must have been with her best friend Zoë, she always acted differently when she was around. She wasn’t usually the bitchy, gossip queen type of girl. Victoria was one of the kindest people Max knew, and he knew a lot of people.

“I had to go to the supermarket, we ran out of peanut butter.” He blurted out. Victoria knew he was lying, she knew him too well.

“Alright then.” She giggled. “I’m gonna go to dad’s house tonight, are you coming with us?” She asked.

“Us?” He asked.

“Yeah, Zoë is staying the night.” She smiled excitedly.  
Max sighed in frustration. Why did she always have to come with Victoria? He was fine with just one sister, not two.

“I’ll think about it.” He smiled awkwardly, as his younger sister turned around and walked back to her friend, who was waiting impatiently with two Starbucks drinks in her hand.

Max’s phone buzzed once more, and he glanced at the screen.

“You better go with them.” It said. He was being watched.


	3. Chapter 3

_“You better go with them.” It said. He was being watched._

Max felt his heart skip a beat, and looked around frightened, but there was nothing he could see. Who could possibly be listening to them? And how? It’s not like he and Victoria were shouting at each other like it was a marketplace. It had to be someone standing close to them. Stoffel? No, Max trusted him with his life. It couldn’t be. It had to be someone else.

He decided to give in, afraid of the possible consequences. It was Christmas after all, and he didn’t feel like spending it on his own either. He dialed his dad’s phone number on the digital keypad and waited for him to answer.

“Jos Verstappen” he answered.

“Hey dad, it’s me.” Max started.

“Ah son, how is it going with karting? I haven’t heard from you for a while.”

“Yeah, karting is going well.” He sighed. The only thing his dad seemed to care about is Max’s karting career. He never asked how he was doing, it was just about the karts. “Hey uh, could I come over for Christmas ton-“ Max couldn’t finish his sentence before Jos hung up on him.

He groaned in frustration and jammed his phone back into the pocket of his tight skinny jeans. He would try to stop by his father’s house and hope he would be let inside for the night. His mother was probably ready to disown him if he dared to come home that day. She would find out he snuck out, and he would be grounded for an even longer period of time.

"Something wrong?" Stoffel asked, while he subtly slid his cell phone into his pocket. Max raised an eyebrow.

"Eh, no, I guess not." He stated.

"Alright, I should get going. I have a train to my parent's house to catch." Stoffel added.

"Alright, catch you later," Max mumbled, as Stoffel made his way back to the main entrance of the park.

He could feel a presence standing behind him, its breathing causing shivers to go down his neck. Max slowly turned around to see who it was. He looked him in the eyes, and it felt like a punch in the stomach. Not one, not two, but a million punches in the stomach, all hitting him at the same time.

"Hey." Carlos looked Max in the eyes. His hair was messy and fluffy, partly covered by a dark gray beanie. His cheeks and nose were flushed bright red due to the cold winter season.

"H-hi." Max practically choked out, trying not to stutter too much, even though he only spoke one word. He didn't want Carlos to think he was the chaotic mind that he was.

Carlos gave Max an odd look. "Did you hear me?" He said.

"What?" Max said slightly panicked, worried that his mind had run off too far again.

"I said, would you like some hot chocolate because there's a really good stand over there." He pointed at one of the stands at the small market area.

Max blinked at least five times in two seconds to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"Are you with me Max?" Carlos chuckled slightly.

"Eh, yeah, yes. Yes?" Max raised the pitch of his voice at the end of his sentence. Why would Carlos ask him out in the first place?

"Well, what are you waiting for then?" Carlos smiled and walked Max to the hot chocolate stand.

"Do you want marshmallows in yours?" He asked, and Max nodded in response. "Please."

Max reached for his wallet, but Carlos stopped him.

"My treat." He smiled.

"No, why would you?" Max asked. At the moment he was so confused. He was drinking hot chocolate on Christmas day, with Carlos out of all people.

Carlos frowned. Max thoughts had gone off to worry again. He fucked up. He fucked up, didn't he? Now Carlos hated him. Why couldn't he have acted normal for once? He felt himself becoming utterly frustrated with himself, so he tried to wander his mind back to other things. That's right, he was with Carlos, and yet his thoughts were somewhere else.

"I'm just trying to be nice," Carlos repeated himself.

"Why? What did I do? For all, I knew you hated my guts." Max said in frustration.

Carlos sighed and tried to control his temper. "You're probably wondering why I showed up on your doorstep that evening."


	4. Chapter 4

  
_Carlos sighed and tried to control his temper. "You're probably wondering why I showed up on your doorstep that evening."_

 

Max nodded shyly. He didn't know whether he wanted some answers or impress Carlos.

"The truth is," He began. "I just don't know what to do with you."

  
Max frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?" Max knew he was useless to anyone really, especially to Carlos.

"I just don't know Max." Carlos sighed.

Max did not understand one bit of what Carlos was trying to tell him.

"Can you just try and explain it to me?" He fumbled with his fingers, feeling anxiety come through from the bottom of his stomach, up to his lungs and throat. He was afraid that Carlos was going to pull another stunt on him like he used to.

"I'm just feeling so confused- I-" Carlos stuttered.

"Just piss off," Max mumbled.

"What?" Carlos said, and he couldn't figure out if he didn't understand what he had said, or if he just didn't know if he was serious.

"I said piss off!" Max raised his voice at the older boy.

Carlos's eyes widened. "What did I ever do to you?"

"I can't believe you're even asking me that" Max snapped and got up.

"Listen I'm trying to make things up to you and this is how you reply? Get your shit together Max."

Carlos' words absolutely broke Max's partly-glued-together heart. He was devastated. He just couldn't believe after all Carlos had done to him over the years, he could still show up like this and make it up to him like it was absolutely nothing. He just didn't understand.

Max tried to get away from him, but Carlos grabbed him by his arm forcefully, so he wouldn't be able to get away. All of a sudden his mind flashed back to a childhood memory of him and Carlos.

* * *

 

  
It was the first day of January after the long winter break. Max had just gotten a new backpack for Christmas that weekend. It was a dark blue one, with small red cars all over them. It even came with a car pendant on the zipper, about the size of a walnut. Max couldn't wait to show it off to his friends at school. That morning, he proudly packed it with his pencil case, and the lunch his mother had made him the evening before.

Walking onto the school playground proudly with the backpack on his back, he ran into Carlos.

"Hi, sorry!" Max smiled brightly, nothing could make him feel sad that day. He just wanted to show off his backpack.

"What do you think you're doing fish?" Carlos grinned. He was in the class above him since he was a year older than Max.

"I said I'm sorry-" But Carlos interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. He grabbed him by his arm forcefully, purposely trying to hurt him. Max tried to get out of Carlos hold, and he almost managed to, but something held him back. Carlos had yanked him down onto the ground by his little car pendant. The one that he was so proud of. The chain broke, and he saw Carlos holding it in his hand. Carlos laughed and walked back to his group of friends, tossing the metal pendant onto the ground.

Max sat up, his head hurt, but he didn't care. He took the backpack off his back to see if it was still intact. The pattern was slightly scratched, and he tried his best not to cry. He crawled over to the broken pendant and held it in his hand tightly. And, oh, how he wished the day was over.

* * *

 

"Let me go," Max said calmly, but anger still noticeable in his voice.

"No," Carlos said. "not this time."

"I said let go of me!" Max's hand muscles contracted, trying to keep his shit together. He squeezed the mug of hot chocolate with so much force, that it shattered in his hand, and the burning hot beverage spilled over his hand and shoes. Carlos stepped back, trying to avoid the milky brown splatter onto his clothing, and let go of Max's arm.

"I get it." He said quietly, turned around and walked off.

Max felt the hot liquid burn his skin, but he didn't seem to care. He squatted down to pick up the shards of the porcelain mug that cut into his hand and dropped them into a small bin decorated with some mistletoe leaves and tiny Christmas lights. He grabbed the money for the hot chocolate that Carlos was supposed to pay, and left a little extra for the mug, he didn't want to upset the lady that gave it to them, he had upset enough people already.


	5. Chapter 5

Max woke up to the feeling of something cold and liquid running down his skin. What he was lying on did not feel like his bed, not even like a bed in general. He sat up slightly and rubbed his eyes. He felt little pieces of dirt and sand scratching over the piece of skin that covered his eyeball and he blinked a couple of times. He looked around and rinsed the dirt off his hand with some water from his almost empty water bottle. The sun had just barely risen, the very few rays of sunlight shining into his eyes. He got up and stretched out his back. He checked the lock screen of his phone for notifications, but there weren’t any except for that stupid little message from the unknown texter telling him he had fucked up again. His father wouldn’t let him in last night, and he didn’t have the nerve to come back home to his mother again. He had spent the night on his own under a cycling tunnel, which wasn’t very dry after all since there was still rain water dripping from the walls onto his face.

“You didn’t listen. You know what will happen next, Max.” The text message said.

The dark blonde boy slid his phone into the pocket of his coat and shivered. The rain water came down into the tunnel, causing his clothes to become soaking wet. A cyclist came through the tunnel but didn’t seem to notice him. Max grabbed his backpack from the ground and swung it around his shoulder. He walked out of the tunnel while digging his hand through the side pocket of his bag and checked to see if he still had some cash for some food. His stomach rumbled since he didn’t have dinner the night before either.

He walked down the street, with his hood pulled up onto his head. He looked around for a supermarket and crossed the street after noticing one on the other side of the street. A car honked loudly after it had to break aggressively so he wouldn’t get hit. Max glanced at the car, but rolled his eyes and walked into the shop. He grabbed a plastic basket and listened to the quiet music that played through the radios. He grabbed a few cans of Redbull, and a baguette. That should be enough to get him through the day. He went to the till and paid for his food, and walked back out. Meanwhile, the rain had stopped, but it had gotten windier, causing the teenager to shiver even more. His hands had turned red from the cold. He could really use a coffee at the moment.

And a blanket.

And a proper place to sleep.

  
He sat down on a wooden bench, and tore a piece off the french bread, before shoving it into his mouth. He was starving.

 

He had almost fallen asleep again, the caffeine from the cans of energy drink no longer had an effect. The vibration of his phone made him open his eyes again. He slid his hand into his pocket and answered the call.

“Hello?” He said with a hoarse voice.

“Max baby thank god.” His mother's voice sounded through the speaker of his mobile phone. Her voice was shaky, it sounded like she was crying.

“What happened?” He asked her. He couldn’t deal with his mother being sad, it broke his heart.

“Maxie, baby please come home.” She cried out. “Where are you?”

“I’m fine mom.” He mumbled.

“Please come home sweetie, we are all worried about you.” She sniffled.

Max took a deep breath and broke the connection. Knowing his mother, she would trace the call to find out where he was. He threw his phone onto the ground and broke it by smashing it with his foot. The tiny pieces of glass flew onto the ground, and he ran away from it as quickly as he could. He could hear the sound of police cars in the distance coming in his direction.

“Fuck, fuck.” He could feel his eyes tear up, and the frequency of his heartbeat increase. He felt lost, he didn’t know what to do or where to go. He reached for the little bump in his left pocket, and pulled it out. His small red car pendant. He held it in his hand tightly. Come on Max, get your shit together. You need to run. Now. Before they find you. He slid the pendant back into his pocket and ran into the woods.

After running for a while, and completely being lost into the woods, he could hear the sound of crisp leaves, as if someone or something, for all he knew walked around the woods.

“Max? Max? Where are you?” He could hear a few people call his name. He felt panicked slightly. Of course, his mother had sent out people to come looking for him. It didn’t surprise him. He looked around quickly, trying to find a place to hide. The trees were too high and too dangerous to climb. He ran into a few high bushes and decided to hide in there, not noticing his tiny car fell out of the pocket of his trousers. He watched the people look around and call his name over and over again from between the twigs where they wouldn’t be able to see him. He got tired of waiting, and slowly fell asleep with his head resting against a bigger branch,

But the woods wasn’t the place where he woke up.


	6. Chapter 6

Max woke up to the sound of a running shower. It felt like he was back at home, but he wasn’t dreaming. He suddenly jerked up into a sitting position. He looked around, he didn’t know where he was. He was wearing a clean, white shirt, which was too big on him but it was comfortable. He pulled his legs up from under the white cotton bed sheets and got up a little too quickly. This sure as hell wasn’t his house, neither was it one of his friends’. The sound of running water stopped. As quickly as possible, he ran out of the room and looked around for a way out when he spotted an open window. For all he knew, he was abducted by an axe murderer.

 

He opened the window a little further, but it had a lock on it. He  _ had  _ to get out, as soon as possible, even though he wasn’t wearing any trousers. Just the shirt and his black boxer briefs. He tried to push his leg through the narrow opening of the window. Maybe if he squeezed hard enough he would be able to climb out. He could hear the footsteps nearing him, so he squeezed his leg through the window as hard as he could, to a point where he had gotten stuck.

 

Through the bedroom door opening he saw a figure, a male figure, and it reminded him of a person he knew very well. He turned his head towards the character, and it confirmed his thoughts. He knew it was too late to run now, he had already gotten stuck in an attempt of escaping through a miniscule window, and he has now been spotted as well.

 

“Where do you think you’re going?” The guy with the deeper voice spoke. 

 

“I- uh, it’s not what it seems, I promise.” The younger lad stuttered.

 

“You have your leg stuck inside my window and you very likely do not remember me bringing you here.” He chuckled. “Here, let me help you.” He stuck out his hand.

 

Max shook his head. “No.”

  
  


“I already gave you a chance last time and I’m not giving you one again Carlos. Just let me go before-” Max spoke out before Carlos had interrupted him.

 

“Why can’t you just cooperate for once?” Carlos sighed in annoyance. “I’m trying to help you. Now let’s get your fucking leg out of my window.”

 

Max wanted to blurt out what came into his head, but held back. He just chuckled instead. 

 

“Alright then, but I want some answers.” Carlos nodded and placed his hands on either side of Max’s waist so he wouldn’t fall over. 

 

“Can you move your leg or is it completely stuck in there?” Carlos asked. Max tried to pull his leg back, but the friction of the window wouldn’t let him. He sighed, and shook his head. 

 

“How did you think you were going to fit through there anyways?” Carlos teased.

 

“Ehh, yeah, it was my only way out basically.” He answered.

 

“Okay, don’t move.” Carlos said as he let go of Max’s waist and went into his bathroom. Where else was he supposed to go? Max thought while he tried to pull his leg out of the narrow space between the window and the wall. A couple of seconds later the Spanish boy had returned with a bottle of lube. 

 

“Lube?” Max raised a brow. 

 

“I mean, yeah, it should make your leg more slippery so you should be able to pull it out.” He replied, which made quite a lot of sense.

 

“Alright.” Max shrugged, as Carlos squirted some into his hands and started to massage it onto Max’s leg around the area where his leg was stuck. Max inhaled and shivered, which caused the older boy to smile. 

 

“Sorry, forgot to warm it up.” He continued.

 

Max wiggled his leg around for a bit, and could feel it coming loose and eventually was able to pull it out, causing him to fall back a little. 

 

“There we go, careful.” Carlos held him back so he wouldn’t tumble over.

 

“Slippery.” Max commented.

 

“No shit, Sherlock.” Carlos replied with a slight smile on his face. “I’ll show you the bathroom so you can clean up properly, I only did what was necessary yesterday.” 

 

“No.” Max said.

 

“No?” Carlos questioned.

 

“You promised to give me some answers first.” The blonde boy folded his arms.

 

“We both know that’s not going to happen so there’s no point in asking.” Carlos replied. 

 

“Why are you doing all this? You know I don’t trust you.” Max ignored his previous comment.

 

“It’s better for you if you do at the moment.” Carlos said.

 

“Why?” Max asked.

 

“I can’t answer that.” Carlos answered.

 

“Yes you can.” Max said.

 

Carlos sighed, and rubbed his face. 

 

“Listen, if I could answer your questions I would, okay? But I can’t, I can’t. So now stop asking all these questions you will never get an answer to and just get into the shower so you can warm up and rinse all that gunk and lube off your beautiful body and get dressed so I can make you some food since you look like you’re starving.” He said in one breath.

 

“W-what?” Max stuttered. 

 

“Just do it okay?” He sighed.

 

“Did you just call me beautiful?” Max asked.

 

“No.” 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Max got out of the shower and wrapped one of the warm towels that Carlos had given him around his waist. He didn’t have any clean clothes with him, so the older boy had given him a clean shirt, a zip up hoodie, and some gray sweatpants. He walked into the bedroom with his wet hair still dripping onto his bare chest, and put the clothes on as he was told to. It smelled delicious inside, it smelled like vanilla waffles, and fresh raspberries, and coffee. He followed the scent downstairs, into the kitchen. Carlos had made him a beautiful plate of indeed, waffles, and some fresh fruits and coffee to go with it as well.

 

“That smells amazing.” Max inhaled the scent dramatically, wishing it wouldn’t ever leave his nostrils.

 

Carlos smiled. 

 

“I hope you like waffles because I didn’t have anything else.” He rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. 

  
“It’s perfect, Carlos.” Max smiled. “But how am I supposed to trust you if you’re not going to answer my questions?” 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING
> 
> this contains descriptions of emotional trauma with violence and descriptions of suicide attempts. Please do not read this chapter if this could trigger you into any kind of dangerous situation.

_ “But how am I supposed to trust you if you’re not going to answer my questions?”  _

 

“Simple” Carlos answered. “You don’t.”

 

Max stood in front of him, not knowing what to say or how to respond to the statement Carlos had just made. 

 

“Why did you bring me here?” He ignored the older boy’s comment and decided to ask anyways.

 

“What the hell did I just say Max? I’m not going to answer your bloody questions, you understand?” He replied raising his voice.

 

“But-” Max tried to say something back which only resulted in the fact that the older boy became angrier with him.

 

“Listen up you stubborn piece of shit!” He slammed his fist against the table, knocking off Max’s breakfast plate. The raspberries flew off the plate before the porcelain shattered into large pieces against the marble floor. A splash of whipped cream touched Max’s foot, causing him to jump back slightly. 

 

He stood in front of the older boy, feeling numb. He felt like there was no way out of this, he was being kept here without knowing why. Carlos’ face showed an expression of regret.

 

“Max…” He sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lose my shit over this and-” Carlos couldn’t finish his sentence, not because Max interrupted him, well, he didn’t interrupt him directly. He stopped talking, and the room was filled with the sound of small sobs and hiccups leaving the younger boy’s throat. Carlos knew about Max’s past, and he knew what he just did was wrong, so wrong.

 

Carlos stood there, not knowing how he would be able to comfort him. He knew Max would get mad if he took one more step in his direction, it would make him feel more afraid than he already was but at the same time he didn’t want to just stand there and act like he didn’t care about his feelings either. There was just no right option for him right now.

 

The volume and intensity of the sobs kept increasing, and it was driving Carlos insane. He wanted to make it stop. He didn’t want Max to feel upset, especially not because of him.

 

* * *

 

 

“Please tell me you know where he is, please!” Sophie, his mother cried out to his younger sister Victoria. His mother had gotten extremely worried about her son, he had been missing for more than twenty four hours now, and she was lost, she didn’t know what to do. She had tried to call her ex husband Jos numerous times, but he did not want anything to do with her or the entire situation. Victoria was tired of her mum’s panic and stress, she was worried to death herself as well. She hadn’t eaten the entire day, she wanted to be sure her brother was okay. He meant the world to her. 

“Please stop.” Vic cried out to her mother. She had been paranoid all day and she was getting tired of it. She needed a break, somewhere where she could think of something else, with someone else.

“You need to eat something Vic.” Her mother sighed. “You haven’t eaten all day. I’ll go to the grocery store and get some sushi, okay?” She sniffled and wiped away tears, old tears that had dried up already because she had been crying so much that no more tears would come out of her tear ducts.

She nodded slightly in response. “I’ll go get the table ready.” She sighed.

Her mom left, and that was the last time she would see her for a while, for now.

 

* * *

 

 

“Is there anything I can do? Anything?” Carlos said softly, trying not to upset Max even more. 

Max shook his head. “You knew.”

“I knew? What did I know?” Carlos asked him.

“You knew how to hurt me where it would hurt me the most and that’s what you did you knew, you knew, you knew!” He cried out, not much power left in his voice from all the sobbing he had done earlier. Carlos didn’t reply.

“I don’t know what it is what you want to do to me but if this is what you want go ahead, hurt me where I’m most vulnerable, I don’t know how you know, and I don’t fucking care anymore. If you’re gonna keep doing this just do it now, go ahead.” 

Carlos now truly realised the mistake he made. He took a risk and stepped closer to him. Max looked at him terrified, as if he was his father. Carlos knew about the abusive relationship Max had with his dad and yet he continued to act this way.

Max made himself as small as possible, trying to protect himself from what Carlos may or may not do. 

Carlos didn’t plan on hurting him. He wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and held him to his chest as tightly as possible, trying to comfort him.

But that wasn’t what Max wanted. He didn’t want to have to do anything with Carlos anymore and used all of his left over strength to push him off of him. 

“Don’t you dare fucking touch me Carlos!” He cried out.

Carlos stepped back. What he tried to fix had only gotten worse.

 

* * *

 

 

Daniel heard knocking on the front door of his apartment. He tried to ignore it until Stoffel started to complain about it, because it wouldn’t stop. He downed his shot before putting the shot glass down on the table and got up to answer the door. 

“Listen whatever you want mate i’m kinda busy here.” He said with a heavy drunk-sounding Australian accent. He didn’t have to say anything before he saw the girl he had a one-night-stand with earlier standing in his doorstep. 

“Victoria?” He asked. “What are you doing here?” He raised his eyebrow.

“Whooo daaaaaattttttt?” Stoffel shouted from the living room, causing Rosanne, who was sitting beside him, to laugh. 

“Max, he- he’s gone.” She cried out.

  
  


“What do you mean he’s gone?” Rosanne asked her, trying to calm her down in Dan’s messy bathroom, away from the guys.

“L-last time I saw him was at the park a day after his birthday, he was talking to your boyfriend and-” She couldn’t finish off her sentence before Rosanne interrupted her.

“Stoffel’s not my boyfriend.” She said. “Sorry, go on.” She apologized quickly after.

Victoria sniffled and wiped her tears with a tissue while Rosanne rubbed her back.

“Last time I saw him at the park and he was supposed to stay over at our dad’s place but he never showed up and no one knows where he is and we can’t contact him on his cell phone and I’m just oh- so worried about him.” She sobbed.

“Come on.” She said. “I know something that will cheer you up a little for tonight.” Rosanne smiled and led her back to the living room. 

  
  
  


“Is that a weed?” Vic asked confused while being handed a joint from Daniel. “Isn’t that illegal?”

“A small amount won’t do you any damage.” He said. “You’ll be able to sleep better after, you look exhausted.” 

She hesitated, but then nodded. Rosanne lit it for her. 

“You’ll get used to the feeling.” She smiled.

 

* * *

 

 

It had been around three days after Victoria left as well, and her mother had become absolutely insane. She had no one left in her house to look after her. She hadn’t gone to work since Max disappeared and now the only person she had left was gone as well. She didn’t know if any of them were okay, alive at least. She started to feel like it was all her fault. Everyone around her kept disappearing from her life.

First it was Jos, the one who she thought was her soulmate. Then her son, who she had a good, healthy relationship with. They talked about anything together, he had always told her how his day went when she came home late from work. Maybe she wasn’t there for her children enough. If her son disappearing wasn’t enough already, then her daughter left as well. She couldn’t handle it anymore. It was all her fault.

She put down the last bottle of wine she could find in the cupboard and went upstairs into the bathroom, searching through the cupboards for Max’s medication. She knew the side effects and she knew what would happen if she took an overdose. She knew exactly what happened, the last time, when Max tried to overdose on the pills, years ago, when she was still together with her ex-husband.

She twisted open the container, her hands shaking. She poured as many pills into her hand that would fit. She closed her eyes, took a few breaths and swallowed them. One by one.


End file.
